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Only two sex forms but multiple gender variants: How to explain?
Are sex and gender interchangeable terms? In classical biology, both are sometimes but not always used on an equal basis for some groups of animals. However, for our own species the Homo sapiens, they are not. A major question is why are there only two types of gametes (sperm- and egg cells), two ty...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Taylor & Francis
2018
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5824932/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29497472 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19420889.2018.1427399 |
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author | De Loof, Arnold |
author_facet | De Loof, Arnold |
author_sort | De Loof, Arnold |
collection | PubMed |
description | Are sex and gender interchangeable terms? In classical biology, both are sometimes but not always used on an equal basis for some groups of animals. However, for our own species the Homo sapiens, they are not. A major question is why are there only two types of gametes (sperm- and egg cells), two types of sex steroids, (androgens and estrogens in vertebrates, and two types of ecdysteroids in insects), while the reproduction-related behaviour of the gamete producers displays a much greater variability than just two prominent forms, namely heterosexual males and heterosexual females? It indicates that in addition to a few sex-determining genes ( = the first pillar), other factors play a role. A second possible pillar is the still poorly understood cognitive memory system in which electrical phenomena and its association with the plasma membrane membrane-cytoskeletal complex of cells play a major role (learning, imitation and imprinting). This paper advances a third pillar, that hitherto has been almost completely ignored, namely the cellular Ca(2+)-homeostasis system, more specifically its sex-specific differences. Differential male-female genetics- and hormone-based Ca(2+)-homeostasis with effects on gender-related processes has been named Calcigender before. It will be argued that it follows from the principles of Ca(2+)- physiology and homeostasis that all individuals of a sexually reproducing animal population have a personalized gender behaviour. Thus, subdividing gender-behaviours in hetero-, homo-, bi-, trans- etc. which all result from a differential use of the very same basic physiological principles, is too primitive a system that may yield false sociological interpretations. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5824932 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Taylor & Francis |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-58249322018-03-01 Only two sex forms but multiple gender variants: How to explain? De Loof, Arnold Commun Integr Biol Research Article Are sex and gender interchangeable terms? In classical biology, both are sometimes but not always used on an equal basis for some groups of animals. However, for our own species the Homo sapiens, they are not. A major question is why are there only two types of gametes (sperm- and egg cells), two types of sex steroids, (androgens and estrogens in vertebrates, and two types of ecdysteroids in insects), while the reproduction-related behaviour of the gamete producers displays a much greater variability than just two prominent forms, namely heterosexual males and heterosexual females? It indicates that in addition to a few sex-determining genes ( = the first pillar), other factors play a role. A second possible pillar is the still poorly understood cognitive memory system in which electrical phenomena and its association with the plasma membrane membrane-cytoskeletal complex of cells play a major role (learning, imitation and imprinting). This paper advances a third pillar, that hitherto has been almost completely ignored, namely the cellular Ca(2+)-homeostasis system, more specifically its sex-specific differences. Differential male-female genetics- and hormone-based Ca(2+)-homeostasis with effects on gender-related processes has been named Calcigender before. It will be argued that it follows from the principles of Ca(2+)- physiology and homeostasis that all individuals of a sexually reproducing animal population have a personalized gender behaviour. Thus, subdividing gender-behaviours in hetero-, homo-, bi-, trans- etc. which all result from a differential use of the very same basic physiological principles, is too primitive a system that may yield false sociological interpretations. Taylor & Francis 2018-01-31 /pmc/articles/PMC5824932/ /pubmed/29497472 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19420889.2018.1427399 Text en © 2017 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article De Loof, Arnold Only two sex forms but multiple gender variants: How to explain? |
title | Only two sex forms but multiple gender variants: How to explain? |
title_full | Only two sex forms but multiple gender variants: How to explain? |
title_fullStr | Only two sex forms but multiple gender variants: How to explain? |
title_full_unstemmed | Only two sex forms but multiple gender variants: How to explain? |
title_short | Only two sex forms but multiple gender variants: How to explain? |
title_sort | only two sex forms but multiple gender variants: how to explain? |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5824932/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29497472 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19420889.2018.1427399 |
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